City of Oneida receives nearly $10 million for downtown revitalization

ONEIDA, N.Y. — A nearly $10 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) award will help the City of Oneida complete eight projects to leverage the community’s historic resources to create more housing and business opportunities.

The city, which developed and grew around the expansion of the state canal system in the 1830s, will continue to highlight its canal legacy as a catalyst for growth, tourism, and quality of life. It will utilize its dense, walkable downtown with significant architectural and historical assets to build upon with projects to improve its parks, public amenities, and streetscape infrastructure, and creating new mixed-use spaces.

“We are very excited with the announcement of the funded projects for the Oneida DRI,” Oneida Mayor Helen Acker said in a Wednesday news release. “With the combination of both government and private partnership, this is the single largest investment in Oneida’s history. It is a game changer for our city.”

With $9.7 million in state investments paired with public and private-sector investments, the city will focus on the following projects:

• Improve streetscape and pavement to portions of Main, Broad, and Madison streets and Farrier and Vanderbilt avenues with bicycle infrastructure added to Sconondoa Street — $1,521,000
• Rehabilitate the vacant Hotel Oneida to provide mixed-use space including apartments, a restaurant/pub, and banquet space — $2.9 million
• Restore and upgrade the Devereaux building into mixed-use residential, retail, and commercial redevelopment — $1,569,000
• Redevelop the underused 20,000-square-foot Lerman Building to create townhouse-style apartments and commercial spaces and expand the existing Oneida CoWorks space with new offices and a conference room — $1,141,000
• Create a matching-grant fund, administered by Madison County, for façade and interior improvements, including heavy equipment and permanent installations — $600,000
• Create a form-based code and overlay district for the DRI area to ensure future development meets Oneida’s aesthetic intent —$100,000
• Install an accessible splashpad and pickleball court on the Veteran’s Field campus, repair and upgrade the bathhouse facilities, and develop a new memorial area to honor veterans — $1,059,000
• Build soccer fields and parking areas on former flood sites to encourage downtown-area sports — $760,000

Brian Stratton, director of the New York State Canal Corporation, announced the eight projects for the City of Oneida and 12 projects for the Syracuse’s “Southwest Gateway” in a Wednesday news conference at the Southwest Community Center at 401 South Ave. in Syracuse.

The state Downtown Revitalization Initiative, led by the Department of State with assistance from Empire State Development, Homes and Community Renewal, and NYSERDA, provides financial assistance to transform downtown neighborhoods into vibrant centers that are magnets for redevelopment, business and job creation, and economic and housing diversity.